I project manage training for the web and media industries, but I’m not a trainer myself. I’m also being made redundant in a couple of weeks, so the topic of jobhunting, freelancing and career development has been on my mind whilst attending this training. You’d be surprised what you can do with search to get hired:

My plan is a little less audacious but already getting results: my blog visits are more consistent where before they spiked and flatlined too erratically, and I’m monitoring profile views from new individuals on LinkedIn whom I’m then able to contact directly.

Here are some of the items on my current to-do list, with an explanation in SEO and Social Media terms as to why it’s worthwhile, and where I’m up to on it:

1. Get Blogging!

Why? Search engine algorithms are keen on sites that renew their content on a regular basis, including blogs. For a freelancer or jobhunter with few resources other than a web connection and a PC, blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, Posterous or Livejournal are a great way to manage an online presence. By adding regular, relevant, well-structured posts, even an individual can build a self-marketing advantage by following good SEO practice.

Progress: 50%. My WordPress blog (mothertown.wordpress.com) has been live since last Autumn, but I’m only managing 1 post per month when I should be updating weekly. One problem has been that I’m blogging on multiple topics in one post, which isn’t great from an SEO point of view. 1 topic per post makes it easier to target keywords, and simpler to create relevant H1 and H2 headers. Another error: all of my old, pre-training posts link out to sites where in some cases I need to go back and add nofollow attributes to certain links to prevent “leakage” of my PageRank. A further omission has been not “claiming” my blog on Technorati and other blog directories. Even though their outbound links carry nofollow attributes, it’s part of a larger strategy to build links with other, more established bloggers in the community.

2. Optimise my blog’s “About” page

Why? The static “About” page is more important than my blog posts in a lot of ways: it’s essentially a landing page and my opportunity to present my skills in a way that will draw relevant search traffic. Running any of the free SEO tools on the front page of the blog – where all the posts sit – demonstrates that it only serves WordPress’ own ends, where I have far more control over the content of the static About page.

Progress: 80%. I need a H2 tag! At the moment there’s a big “About” sitting there – no use to the crawler bots. This page will never be 100% complete, because I’ll always be assessing what keywords and phrases should be included to attract potential employers. Running the url through Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool, some of the suggested keywords aren’t the business or activity areas I actually want to target, so I’ll be delving deeper into this over the coming weeks. I also ran the tool on a potential competitors’ site, which gives me a new set of keywords to target via the About page, plus topics to consider blogging about.

3. Optimise my social profiles, and start thinking strategically

Why? Facebook’s user graph continues to grow, especially in terms of visit length, and in the diversity of use: businesses are not only “checking you out” on Facebook but pro-actively hiring using the platform’s unique features, sometimes stealthily, as German digital marketing agency Jung von Matt/Neckar demonstrated last autumn. Critically, Google have now admitted that they’re measuring social media signals for PageRank, which for individuals means that connections and proactive, positive discussions on any flavour of social platform increases their visibility, just as it would for businesses.

Progress: 75%. My LinkedIn profile page has had a radical rebuild to feature keywords in terms of skills, industries and partner businesses I’ve worked with, and like the blog, this will be an ongoinge process. I’ve staked my claim for online real estate with a LinkedIn vanity url (www.linkedin.com/in/simonpaulknight) – which creates a contextual link to influence search results should someone be searching for me by name.

There’s less jobhunting power with my Facebook profile compared to LinkedIn (but again with a custom, contextual url: www.facebook.com/simonpaulknight), but that may change over time – they may even attempt to acquire or conquer LinkedIn over time. But Facebook (and Twitter) are all about conversations in realtime, and so I’ve made a more committed effort to update frequently and engage in relevant conversations, made a little easier when using a multiple-channel desktop client such as Tweetdeck, which lets me add the same update to Twitter and other social networks in one go.

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